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The Arrivals, by Melissa Marr

To sum it up: People are randomly transported through time and space to another world, the Wasteland, where they face strange creatures and magical inhabitants.

This was a quick read (~3-4 hours), but well-written and fun.

When people are transported to the Wasteland, they don’t know why they are there and they all come from various times in Earth’s recent history (post late 1800’s). The only thing they appear to have in common is that they’ve all killed at least one person in their past, making a few of them pretty shady characters. Once there, they have the opportunity to join a small group as mercenaries for the local governor, killing demons and fighting back against the local mob-boss guy, who incidentally tries to recruit all the new arrivals to his posse too. Why does everyone apparently want these time travelers as fighters? Because they come back from the dead after they’re killed. A useful quality in hired enforcers, but there is a catch: there’s a limit to how many times each person comes back from the dead. Most of the arrivals can’t do magic like the native Wastelanders, except for one of the main characters, Kitty, who is pretty awesome and who’s part in the plot is definitely the most interesting.

Bottomline: I rate this PG-13 to R for a few short sex scenes and violence, so not for a young audience. There’s exciting wild West style fights, creepy monsters and smart vampire-like creatures, a little magic and romance; overall a good read. Got ebook from LA library after only a few weeks wait.

I read the first Wicked Lovely book a few years ago, but never got around to finishing the series unfortunately. This book feels like it’s meant for a slightly more mature audience, so maybe that’s why I enjoyed it more. Though, don’t get me wrong, I love a good YA book!

I love a good YA book too, but sometimes you really do need something a bit more mature.
I liked the first book in that series, if I remember correctly, but I just couldn’t get into the rest of them. Maybe I could now, or maybe not…